Aerchon did not slow as more debris poured from the ruptured sky. He moved sharply in the air, cloak snapping violently as another wave of corrupted fragnts descended around him.
His sword traced clean arcs through the chaos, each swing was precise and strong. Where the blade passed the ruin ceased to exist. Corrupted matter destroyed. Temporal residue snapped back into place, and the air healed behind him in ripples of silver light.
A cluster of jagged shards fell together at him while spinning wildly as warped gravity dragged them downward.
Aerchon accelerated. He crossed their path in a blink of an eye, his sword flashing in rapid succession. The shards dissolved one after another before they could spread their corruption further.
But the sky kept bleeding.
More fragnts tore free, larger this ti, denser, and layered with lingering corruption that were able to bend their trajectories unpredictably.
Aerchon gritted his teeth as the pressure mounted. Even with his strengthened body and sharpened Magic, he could feel the strain creeping into his limbs.
His breathing deepened. His aura flared brighter, but the flow was no longer effortless.
Below, King Gulben watched the falling storm with a hardening gaze.
"That is too much. He cannot stop all of it alone," he said grimly.
He reached for his sword.
The mont his hand closed around the hilt, golden light burst forth. The blade glead and ancient runes ignited along its length. Power rolled off him in steady waves as his aura ignited fully.
Aurdis felt the air around her vibrate. Her heart pounding.
"You’re right, father," she said, stepping forward.
Adrien nodded, already drawing in power. Billy cracked his neck, his expression set.
Arty said nothing. She simply stepped forward beside them.
A few ters beside them, the four Archmages remained locked in their tight circle. Sigils multiplied, layers of Magic stacking and interlocking as theory and intentions beca structured.
Their voices never rose, never broke rhythm, even as the world trembled around them.
In the next instant, King Gulben launched himself into the air.
Golden light exploded beneath his feet as he surged upward, moving with a speed and certainty.
He t a descending mass and swung. His sword released a sweeping arc of golden force that carved through the debris, purifying it in a burst of radiant light before it could fracture further.
Aurdis followed, her body cutting through the air. She intercepted a cluster of frozen darkness, her Magic flaring and she shattered it, dispersing the remnants before they could fall.
Adrien and Billy moved in tandem, splitting their paths instinctively. Their attacks tid so closely they felt like a single motion. Debris vanished under their combined assault, reduced to harmless dust and fading sparks.
Arty surged higher. She slipped between falling fragnts with flawless control, destroying each threat with ruthless efficiency, never wasting motion or even hesitating.
Together, they filled the sky.
They moved with speed and precision that made it looked like they belonged in the air, cutting through the falling ruin like veterans of aerial battle. Light, Magic, and force collided again and again, turning destruction into nothing before it could reach the world below.
But then sothing strange began to happen. The air around them twisted.
At first it was subtle. There were brief ripples, like heat haze bending the sky in uneven rings. Then the distortions deepened, forming warped pockets where light folded in on itself.
Space shuddered and stuttered as if reality itself had lost its rhythm.
Aurdis felt it imdiately. Her next movent faltered as the air resisted her, stretching unnaturally around her limbs.
"What—"
Around them, the debris they had already destroyed began to respond.
Ash that should have dispersed froze in place. Glittering dust halted. Shards of purified light flickered, then reversed course, drawn toward the distortions as if pulled by an unseen will.
The fragnts moved backward.
Silver dust condensed. Cracks sealed. Broken pieces slid together. Corruption seeped back into the material.
Aerchon turned sharply as he sensed it.
Behind him, debris he had destroyed monts ago reassembled itself, reforming into jagged masses wrapped in warped temporal residue.
The air around them pulsed, ti folding and stitching itself.
"They’re coming back!" Adrien shouted with disbelief cutting through his voice.
Billy swore under his breath as a reconstructed fragnt tore free from a distortion and lunged downward again.
King Gulben’s eyes narrowed as he witnessed it.
"The ti being forced backward!"
Another distortion blood beside Arty. From it, shards she had erased monts ago snapped back into existence, rotating violently as they locked into a single mass.
Arty twisted away just in ti, her strike cleaving through it, but instead of dissolving, the debris split only to be dragged screaming back into the distortion, already beginning to reform again.
The sky filled with them.
Dozens of warped pockets pulsed open and closed, vomiting reconstructed ruin back into the world. Every piece they destroyed returned, bound together by corrupted ti.
Above them all, the distortions aligned briefly. They now realized that far higher in the fractured sky, Zerathul’s influence pressed down like a malignant will, bending causality itself to his command.
The defenders hovered midair, surrounded by collapsing reborn destruction.
"Keep destroying it!" King Gulben shouted through the chaos.
There was no other choice.
Golden light surged again as he swung, carving through a freshly reassembled mass. The debris broke apart under his blade.
Aurdis followed his lead while gritting her teeth. Adrien and Billy gritted their teeth and attacked again.
Arty moved without hesitation, her expression hard as stone as she destroyed fragnt after fragnt, refusing to slow no matter how many tis this power tried to undo their work.
Above them, Aerchon clenched his jaw and pressed on.
Below, within the tight circle of sigils, Saeldir felt the change.
A tremor passed through the runes he was sustaining. His calm expression cracked as he looked up, eyes widening slightly as he took in the distorted sky and the looping destruction.
"The enemy is starting to use the ti power," he said quietly.
Adrius looked up next. He frowned deep as he saw debris reforming midair.
Lysander followed, his face tightening. Sylmira’s fingers that were drawing sigils faltered.
"That distortion is escalating," Sylmira said. "Zerathul is pushing harder for all of us."
"We have to be fast," Adrius said, urgency in his tone. His eyes snapped back to the formation. "Or their efforts can beco aningless."
The pressure mounted.
Sigils flared brighter. Layers of Magic stacked faster, driven by necessity. The four Archmages pushed their synchronization harder.
Unfortunately, this was not sothing that could be solved quickly.
—
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